Inside Illumio: Scott Walker

Inside Illumio is a monthly series that highlights the exceptional individuals behind Illumio's world-class products. Each post will take a peek behind the scenes to spotlight a member of our team. Come get to know us a little better and learn more about what makes Illumio's culture so unique.

This month, meet Scott Walker, Senior Director of Channel Sales for Europe, Middle East, and Asia. Find out how Illumio has nurtured his leadership skills and why running to challenges is a core value in his work and personal life.

Tell me about yourself. What do you do at Illumio?

I'm the Senior Director of Channel Sales for Europe, Middle East, and Asia based in the UK and am ultimately responsible for our indirect go-to-market across Europe, Middle East, and Asia. This includes the partnerships with resellers, system integrators, and managed service providers that take Illumio to market and sell software to its customers.

I typically spend the majority of my day both recruiting new partners and enabling existing partners on how to sell Illumio and prospect and develop pipeline. I spend a huge amount of time working with our large global system integrators on sales campaigns, pre-sales enablement, and winning the hearts and minds of as many people as we possibly can within the channel ecosystem.

I like to say that my heart is in the technical and my head is in sales. I've worked in cybersecurity since the day I left school, almost 15 years. I started out in support and then in technical account management before moving into presales and solution architect roles. Through these roles, I learned that I really enjoyed taking a complex, technical message and distilling it for customers to help solve business problems.

This skill was especially helpful when I joined Illumio about 4 years ago. Zero Trust Segmentation is a fairly new concept and architectural approach. It's beneficial to be able to understand the product technically and communicate it to customers simply.

What made you interested in working at Illumio?

I had seen Illumination, Illumio's application dependency map, in action and thought it was the coolest thing ever.

I was working in the privileged access management space which is very much focused on solving lateral movement risk and had been following Illumio. I'd been hands-on with Illumio's technology in the past and had felt the pain that many of Illumio's customers feel. I realized that Illumio is not only a great company with great potential, but it's a company with a fantastic solution and product offering with huge untapped market potential.

I thought, wouldn't it be fun to be able to tell that story to as many people as possible? It was a no-brainer to join the business.

What does a day in the life of Scott look like? What are you working on that excites you?

I'm excited to tell as many people as I possibly can about how awesome our technology is and how it addresses real-life problems within the market.

Day to day, that means a variety of things. I keep in regular touch with our ecosystem of partners, alliances, distributors, and managed service providers and make sure they're educated on Illumio's new offerings. I also work to identify new opportunities for Illumio, running pipeline development campaigns and marketing activities with partners, progressing sales opportunities, and executing marketing and enablement programs within our channel partners.

It's important to me to build relationships. Building a channel and an ecosystem is a game of hearts and minds. I want to make sure that we're offering something that solves real problems while showing that we're trustworthy and good citizens of the business.

What's the most important thing you've learned so far in your role at Illumio?

I've learned how to be a leader at Illumio. Jim Love, Illumio's Chief Revenue Officer, has been a strong coach to me, helping me go from an individual contributor to a leader within the business.

There's always something new to learn, especially in our industry, and Illumio has nurtured my natural curiosity. I've been given a platform from which to grow.

What are you passionate about outside of your career?

The first is my family - my wife and kids mean everything to me. Despite spending a lot of time on the road meeting with people, I'm a home person. I have two young children, Sienna and Jack, and try to get in as much trouble as I can with them!

I'm also really into sports. I play a copious amount of football (or soccer, for the Americans) and golf - I enjoy just saying fit in general.

Annually, I try to do something physically challenging to keep me on my toes. This year I accomplished the Fan Dance which is part of the selection process for the UK Special Forces. It's a 24km trek up Pen y Fan, the highest peak in South Wales.

Which Illumio core value resonates with you the most and why?

It has to be run to challenges. That's in my DNA - the more difficult something is, the more enjoyment I typically get out of it.

Illumio is in a young market that has evolved massively. We have the opportunity to adapt forward and build something new. We have millions of miles to go, and that's really exciting. This mindset embodies the core value of running to challenges and gets me out of bed in the morning.

What do you want people to know about working at Illumio?

Illumio is the kind of company where you'll be able to look back in five or ten years' time and see that you not only built something new but made a real difference. You'll be proud of the work you do at Illumio.

Interested in joining the team? Check out our career openings.